Here's a post on the Business 2.0 blog about ESPN asking viewers to create their own ads. But it's not just for sports networks. Wineries might have a go with this idea as well to generate media attention, web site traffic, and sales:
- Have contest for drinkers of your wine to make a cool homemade commercial. The prize is easy: some of your wine (a bottle a month for life if you want to make it more interesting to the media).
- Get your wine PR guy to get some buzz for your business (just like ESPN and MasterCard are doing).
- Post the commercials on your Web site.
- Invite your customers (via e-mail, postcard, web site, blog, press release, etc...) to vote for their favorite on your Web site.
- Give something to the people who make the effort to vote. Ideally, it's tied to them making a wine purchase, so it actually gets your wine into people's mouths.
Yes, it would probably take some effort to set up (and you might want to farm it out), but it's a proven "customer engagement" tactic that already works in other venues. As the Business 2.0 post points out, it involves people with the experience of your brand/product/wine. You might even get some marketing ideas from what your customers produce. This approach might not work for "serious" wines, but for someone aiming at younger media-savvy wine drinkers, or brands with a whimsical approach to their marketing (e.g. Jake's Fault), it might be just the ticket.
Here's an article about home-grown political ads, and one about a homebrew Apple iPod ad that show how other people are making use of an increasingly-media savvy population.
Forget the contest. Would you be daring enough to make your own "homegrown" wine ad/video and post it for people to see on your Web site? I bet the folks over at Stu Pedasso Cellars would!
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